The Eagles missed some early chances to put the match out of reach on the road in Pullman Thursday, leaving the door open for the Hounds to even things up twice in the first half before getting the lone tally of the second half for the win. They rebounded with a vengeance on Saturday at home against neighbor East Valley in a convincing performance, building two-goal and three-goal leads en route to a 4-3 victory in which Ashley Meyer tallied a hat-trick. The result pulled WV back within two points of the Knights with two games remaining. Third-place Clarkston could play a key role in the race for the regular season title with a game against each.
In the GSL, there were a couple of contests pitting title contenders against one another. Gonzaga Prep prevailed in a close contest against Ferris to remain unbeaten and Mead narrowly topped local rival Mt Spokane in a one-goal affair. Central Valley kept themselves in the hunt with a narrow win over Lewis & Clark while, joining Mead, University and Ferris at 5-2 in league play with two games left.
In the Columbia Basin Big Nine the league-leading West Valley Rams kept their record perfect, but it was a narrow victory against third-place Wenatchee, which gained ground on Moses Lake, which lost at Eastmont.
Things were a bit interesting in the Mid-Columbia Conference as well with league-leading Southridge also getting a narrow win, downing Richland. A narrow win over Pasco also kept second-place Hanford ahead of Kamiakin as the trio of 3A schools continue to fight for the league crown.
Across the border in Idaho, the District I & II tournaments came to a close throughout the week; and the losing finalists from the district tournaments took the field Saturday in their play-in contests. Three managed to advance from the six qualification contests to join the six district champions in the Idaho State Tournaments at the 5A, 4A and 3A levels. The event begins Thursday in various locations around the greater-Boise area.
After knocking off top-seeded Timberlake in the semifinals after 6-0 and 4-0 losses in league play, St Maries took the initial lead in the district championship match against Bonners Ferry five minutes into the match, but the glory lasted only five minutes as the Badgers tied it up in the 10th and took the lead two minutes later en route to a 3-1 win and a return to state, where they finished fourth a year ago in their 16th consecutive appearance in the tournament.
CDA Charter tied things up early in the second half, but it was not enough as top-seeded Timberlake netted the next two to create enough space for a 3-2 championship victory. It was a repeat of last year's district final, but CDA Charter won their play-in game a year ago and found themselves advancing all the way to the Idaho State Final and beating Timberlake for the title.
In another close championship contest Thursday in District I-II regionals, third-seeded Moscow took the lead two minutes in, but Lakeland tied it up 10 minutes later and then grabbed the lead on a 50-yard free kick in the second half. They looked headed back to the tournament where it reached the final four twice in the past four years when Moscow got a surprising equalizer with a minute left in the contest. Eight minutes into overtime, however, Lakeland prevailed 3-2 on a loose-ball goal from a freshman.
In the play-in games Saturday, three of the northern Idaho schools advanced to the state tournament - one in each classification. In 5A, it was the CDA girls that moved on with a 2-1 win over Borah while their schoolmates fell in a shootout to Vallivue after a scoreless draw. Moving on at the 4A level was Moscow, using a 3-2 overtime victory against Middleton to claim the boys berth while on the girls side Lakeland dropped a 3-1 contest to Middleton. In the 3A classification CDA Charter blanked Payette 3-0 to reach the girls state tourney while St Maries' unexpected run ended in a 5-0 loss to Emmett.
Here is a look around the leagues for Eastern & Central Washington (all stats are unofficial) and an update on Idaho playoffs:
If you have any updates for stats (particularly assists that go unrecorded for road games), please drop us a note at snaeditor-at-gmail.com. INWsn is currently missing scoring (and GK) information for 10/15 Moses Lake @ Eastmont, 10/13 Eastmont @ Eisenhower, 10/3 Pasco @ Walla Walla and 9/12 Kennewick @ Southridge games.
SPOKANE AREA LEAGUES ##############
GNL Thursday: Cheney 0-6 East Valley; West Valley 2-3 Pullman
NEA Thursday: Lakeside 3-1 Medical Lake; Riverside 0-3 Freeman; Deer Park 10-0 Newport
GSL Friday: Lewis & Clark 0-1 Central Valley; Ferris 1-2 Gonzaga Prep; Mt Spokane 0-1 Mead; Shadle Park 0-SO-1 North Central; Rogers 0-6 University
GNL Saturday: Clarkston 2-1 Cheney; East Valley 3-4 West Valley
Photos: 10.13 Clarkston @ East Valley [+]... 10.17 East Valley @ West Valley [coming soon]... 10.16 LC @ CV [+]
SOUTH & CENTRAL WA AREA LEAGUES ##############
CBB9 Thursday: Moses Lake 2-1 Sunnyside; Eisenhower 0-7 Davis; West Valley 1-0 Wenatchee; Moses Lake 0-2 Eastmont
MCC Saturday: Hanford 1-0 Pasco; Southridge 2-1 Richland; Kennewick 0-6 Kamiakin; Chiawana 8-0 Walla Walla
IDAHO DISTRICT I-II PLAYOFFS & PLAY-INS ##############
-- INWsn --
